"Good bye, Jenna!"

Ronin woke up at 6:15 and called out to me. I shuffled down the hall and opened his door, quickly herded him out since Audrey was still asleep, and had Ronin lay in the living room with me quietly. He drifted back to sleep, as did I, until Nikko started whining at 7a. This is not a bad pattern, but I sure wish Ronin would not wake up so early. Tonight he was antsy going to bed, reading in the dim light of his room, moving around so much that he kept messing up his blankets and calling to me to come fix them. I did, twice, then threatened that I wasn't coming back. I left his room and went to go run on the treadmill downstairs. I took the mp3 player this time, vs. yesterday, knowing that if Ronin fell out of bed or was screaming bloody murder enough to wake up Audrey, Denis was upstairs and could administer to Ronin. I got a longer run time than yesterday, which makes me feel better except for my sore knees. Other muscles are starting to protest so I have to keep this up somehow!

During breakfast I gave Nikko some yogurt. I asked him brightly how was his yogurt?
"YUM!" I think I heard him say that, even if he didn't look at me. That was probably the most interesting part of our morning. I felt like I had changed Nikko's diapers ten times more than Ronin. We had ABA scheduled for 4:30 but I still toyed with the idea of taking the kids outside. The window of time seemed small to me, factoring in the nap that Ronin was supposed to take at 2p. In the end I opted to stay on schedule and not take the kids outside, also because it was still a bit chilly outside. While Ronin napped, I took Nikko and Audrey downstairs for a change of scenery. I also needed to clean the mats because they were dusty. I got the kids to do a little climbing over the foof chairs, then headed back upstairs to give them some snack. Ronin joined us, too. Then it was Nikko's turn to go to ABA with Jenna. I didn't hear much, if any, whining from Nikko during his entire session. I was in the kitchen with Ronin playing Play-Doh on the floor, and I had put Audrey down for a nap. I had a chance to file Nikko's school progress reports as well as some EOBs from Blue Cross Blue Shield. It inspired me to look at our bedroom and start trying to move/purge things on my nightstand. When Nikko and Jenna came upstairs, I got a positive report from Jenna. Nikko only whined when she held back a toy from him. Otherwise, he was very compliant, and even said, "Good bye, Jenna," when she left. She looked thrilled and I was happy, too. I was modeling it minutes before, but he said it somewhat spontaneously. I think he likes Jenna a lot.

Tomorrow I plan on taking the kids to my mom's house for a visit. We could leave right after Audrey wakes up from her nap, maybe even have lunch there. If the weather is nice, maybe we could go outside at least for a walk. I can't take Audrey to any open parks where there are nice, big fields because she'll run away from me, Ronin will run in another direction, and Nikko will run in yet another direction. That's why I have to put up the baby gate across the driveway when we are in the backyard. And I still need some kind of fencing to put between our house and the neighbor's, even though it will look ghetto.